JUNKMARKET Under Glass and Mimi-Toria's Designs

JUNKMARKET Under Glass 

"MARCH MADNESS" 

March 1, 2 & 3, 2012

Hours will be:

March 1  8-10 Early Bird Shopping (see info. below)

March 1  10-6 p.m. (Thursday)

March 2  10-5 p.m. (Friday)

March 3  10-5 (Saturday)

I am so happy and excited to be a part of this great event.  I have been having some recent back issues, but have been working hard to provide you my customers another wonderful experience and will have new lines of jewelry available as well as some of my trademark pieces that my customers have come to love and define a Mimi-Toria's piece upon appearance.  I will post photos as I get a chance, but it's time to get back out to my workshop and get busy.  So here's the details...

Otten  Bros.  greenhouse  will once  again  be  hoppin'  in a few short weeks March. Yep!  That's right....  were baaack!  And once  again all of your favorite  vendors  and vintage finds will be here, and  you will be able to shop in a warm and inviting greenhouse!   Now how fun is that?

Otten Bros. Garden Center and Landscaping is located at 2350 West Wayzata Blvd, Long Lake MN. JUNKMARKET Under Glass hours will be Thursday at 8-10am with Early Bird Shopping.  Beat the crowd and get the great buys and scoop up the one of a kind finds before anyone else! Remember, the early bird gets the worm!  Early Bird Shopping admission is $20 which is good for all three days!  Regular shopping hours start Thursday from 10am-6pm, Friday and Saturday 10am-5pm. Regular Admission is $5 for each day.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Copyright Thief Caught

Life is always interesting here at Mimi-Toria's Designs.  A while back a friend of mine, notified me that my blog content appeared to of been lifted and put on a UK website and that I might want to check it out.  Hers was also stolen, and while dealing with hers, she had noticed and notified the other victims as well.  Mine being one of the four or five that had been stolen from, I readily was contacted and she shared what she had learned in order to get her information removed.
I wasn't sure what I should do, so initially I posted a facebook status and asked others opinions on what they thought I should do, and/or if I was over reacting, etc.  Lots of great feedback ensued and in particular one facebook friend that took the time to comment referred me to her website.  Deb's site "Deco Diva Debi" has an entire area on her blog page that is devoted to how to deal with this type of thing.  After viewing her information offered you can read about how I went about handling it via her blog post below.  It is a great article and since I've been house bound and somewhat bed ridden for two weeks with back issues and am standing at my counter to type this post, I will not babble any more, but will let Deb's post do the talking.  Take from it what you can, learn from it and pass on the information to anyone you may know that has experienced any of this type of thing.
It truly is frustrating to see 1000's of you working hours casually lifted aka/stolen, and than have it show up half way around the world on some strangers site, so that they can make $$$$ off of your hard work and labors?  Some people have no shame...
A little side note:  This was not a stolen design idea, which can be disheartening enough, but this was 2 years of my life shared through my jewelry designs, photographing them, editing them, sharing and writing about them, photographs of my daughter, my Dad, my family, etc., and it was all lifted complete with photos, titles and all content, with no links back to the owner at all.  And for what purpose?  To sell "AD SENSE" ads, so that they could make money off of the readerships clicks on the ads.  Tacky, I say.
See the article below that Deb wrote and shared with her readership on her blog.  I'd love to hear if this has ever happened to you, or what you think you'd do if it were your personal situation.

http://decodivadebi.blogspot.com/2012/02/cyber-theft-cracking-case.html

Details are a Good Thing

So I'm trying to be better about updating my blog, and since I'm homebound nursing my back to health I will post two days in a row.  Score for me. . .  :)

This was a custom order for my husbands, Aunt Debbie.  She attended a Junk Market Under Glass event with her sweet daughter, Christi and I happened to be wearing my personal "Believers Necklace".  She loved it, and asked that I try to do a focal similar to mine for her.  It took a while for me to amass the right elements, but than finally, it all came together for me.

This was sent to Debi right before the Holidays and this is what she received in the mail.  The photograph of the mannequin with wings is one I took last Summer and had made into professional stickers.  This made a nice little extra touch for her otherwise white cardboard jewelry box that I have been packaging my SOLD items in when shipping via the mail.

I love bakers twine for packaging and happened to have it in aqua/white, black/white and grey/white for my packaging choices.  When I found this pretty aqua feather in my stash and the ivory floral pick, I decided to use this for her package.  I of course, was short on time, and oh how easy it would of been to throw that white box in the bubble mailer.   However, I'm glad I took the time for presentation.  This was one of my highest price point items, thus deserving of forcing myself to slow down and take that extra time to gather the right materials to make a statement.  In turn this went from a blah, to ahhha package with a few extra touches.

I bought these picks one year at the end of the Holiday season on clearance for like .29, and it probably would be about that same time of the year that I bought these, so if you like them places like JoAnn's, Michaels or Hobby Lobby would be apt to be the kinds of places to carry something that could be used like I did here.

This photo shows the focals of the necklaces.  My original one that she loved is on the right.  What I recreated for her is the one on the left.  Each of ours has about 18 vintage religious charms and I carefully chose each and every one to be more desirable for a person that is of a Protestant faith vs. the Catholic faith.  So no saints were used, and only one of Mary.
Many of you know that I create only OOAK (One of a Kind) jewelry designs, so when Debi asked me to make one like mine, I explained to her that I couldn't do exactly.  When one works with vintage elements like I do for these creations, I can only make it resemble one another, not duplicate.  The "believe" silver tone and bronze tone word tabs and the crown elements are new, so that portion was changed with the words being chosen in different metals, but all else is vintage elements.  A pretty good match and I think she was pleased in the end with the results.

A Few January Sold Items

It has been a while since I posted some of the jewelry I've been creating and/or have sold, so thought I'd share a few items real quickly tonight.  My Internet is having fits, so I'll make it short and just a few photos.  Enjoy...  Sorry, but these all have sold at either recent events or through my face book site.

On a side note, I have been laid up most of last week with quite a severe back issue, but am hoping that I am on the mend now.  It appears that the good Lord is telling me to slow down a bit, and smell the roses, as I tend to go pretty non-stop when I'm awake.  Unfortunately, this may mean some down sizing at future shows, but this will unfold according to how my back heals from this injury.  It was not lifting excess weight, but rather reaching for a jewelry product off a shelf in a backwards grab while walking forward and my sacroiliac came to a screeching halt and chose to lock up for about a week.  Not a fun thing to experience, but indeed I am much more fortunate than many that actually have a lingering illness they are battling and even those that are fighting terminal disease.  This just has gotten my attention.

Bethlehem Steel, Sparrow Point numbered vintage brass tool tag id, along with a sparrow bird, turquoise nugget and a long antiqued gold tone ball chain necklace.

These two lovelies are both sold, but are buttery soft leather adjustable style cuff bracelets and I have a variety of these types of pieces that will be featured at the March 1-3rd Junk Market Under Glass event at Otten Bros. Nursery in Long Lake, MN.  This is a fabulous event that you'll want to be sure to plan to attend and schedule it on your calendar.

I will continue to create my original hand stamped spoon pendant necklaces with bling and also simply stamped spoon pendants for those that like a more modern feel to theirs.  These pendants are scattered through out the internet with others selling them now, but I'm happy to say that mine were originally created into necklaces early on and still are an original design that had been inspired by a local gal stamping plant markers out of silverware.  About four years ago, I bought some of hers, and made them into pendants, and soon after started using my vast collection of silverware I had been collecting to hand flatten, hand stamp, hand polish, hand ink, drill and hand select the bling pieces that I would cold solder to each pendant, choosing it according to what had been stamped on them.  Thus, the hand stamped spoon pendant was born...  Because of the wear and tear on my body and an injury I suffered while setting up at an event several years ago, I have since started hiring a friend to use his industrial press to save my back from one step in this multi step process.  You may think they are simple, easy to duplicate, but truly they are a labor of love and quite time consuming, when you attempt to create a well made design.

This was one awesome piece that had two different chain options sold with it, so that there were many ways in which it could be styled.  With it's oversized leather tooled cross, vintage key, gorgeous chunky semi precious gemstone bead and funky heart and cowboy hat, it was a quick seller at my recent Trunk Show.